Caseworker jobs in Birmingham

Rare opportunity: Help those affected by road crashes and create lasting change with Brake, the renowned road safety charity.

Who we are: Brake is the national, acclaimed charity delivering the National Road Victim Service, a specialist, accredited, UK-wide support service for road victims, delivering case-managed care for anyone who has been bereaved or seriously injured in a road crash or who is supporting a road crash victim.

Not your average job: This is a highly specialised frontline role supporting people affected by traumatic road deaths and life-changing injuries. We are seeking candidates with a strong understanding of trauma-informed practice and experience supporting people through the impact of traumatic bereavement and/or injury.

You will provide a specialist trauma-informed and bereavement-informed approach to care, helping individuals and families navigate the immediate and long-term impact of sudden loss or catastrophic injury. You will undertake a comprehensive needs, risk and safety assessment from which a bespoke support plan will be agreed with the person and/or families, ensuring that immediate wellbeing needs, vulnerabilities and safeguarding considerations are identified and addressed.

By joining this role, you will make a profound difference to individuals and families during their most difficult moments, helping them regain stability, access practical and emotional support, and navigate the complexities of the criminal justice or coronial process with guidance and care.

Take a look at our comprehensive job description for more details.

What we offer:

- A generous 35 days of annual leave (including bank holidays and 3-day shutdown period between Christmas and New Year, pro-rata for part-time working patterns)

- Birthday day off (taken any time)

- Enhanced sick pay and compassionate leave

- Death in service benefit

- Pension

- Employee Assistance Programme

- Flexible working

- A rewarding role with purpose

- Be part of a skilled, friendly team with an engaged Board of Trustees 

Who you are: We need energised and resilient self-starters with experience in supporting traumatic grief and post-traumatic stress. a background in providing high-quality emotional support and advocacy. Experience in the following sectors often provides a robust toolkit of high-level transferable skills: Police or criminal justice roles, family liaison, counselling or trauma support, health and social care, casework in any related field

Specifically seeking candidates with:

- Experience with people affected by trauma, sudden bereavement, or serious injury

- Understanding of trauma-informed practice and ability to provide support sensitively

- Experience identifying and responding to safeguarding and vulnerability concerns

- Strong advocacy skills ability to act as a powerful voice for service users, expertly navigating external networks, assemble resources and cross-functional support where required.

About us: At Brake, we are committed to creating a truly inclusive workplace where all colleagues feel valued, respected, and supported. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and life experiences, and particularly encourage candidates from the global majority, LGBTQIA+ community, and people with disabilities to apply.

We believe that diverse perspectives strengthen our work and enable us to deliver the best possible support to individuals and families affected by road trauma. As a proud Disability Confident employer, we don’t want you to ‘fit’ our culture, we want you to enrich it

If you are passionate about making a difference and share our vision for a world where no one is killed on our roads, we want to hear from you.

Not for traffic offenders: Please note:  Due to the nature of our work we can't accept applications from traffic offenders where offences are unspent.  Candidates will be asked to disclose whether they have any unspent points on their licence at interview.

An enhanced DBS check is required due to the sensitive nature of our service.

Join us today and be part of the solution! 

Hours of Work: Full time- 36.5 hours p.w. and part-time posts available

Annual Leave: 25 days plus 8 bank holidays pro rata per annum from 1st January to 31st December. This rises to 30 days pro rata over the next 5 years

We are inviting applications for this exciting opportunity to join an established team.

We are looking for experienced advisers who have a strong background in the delivery of high-quality advice and a good working knowledge of welfare benefits.

The post holder will undertake casework, assisting clients to access their entitlement to welfare benefits and other sources of financial help, up to and including tribunal representation.

Advice will be delivered virtually (including phone, secure email and video) and at outreach settings across Birmingham and Solihull according to the service user’s needs and preferences.

Experience of working independently and building relationships with third sector colleagues will be important, as will the ability to achieve targets.

CV’s not accepted

Closing Date: 30th June 2026

Interview Date: Monday 20th July 2026

About Care4Calais and the Legal Access Department

Care4Calais is a volunteer-based charity providing essential aid and support for refugees in France and the UK.

In northern France we operate year-round from Calais, working alongside communities in Calais and Dunkirk to provide warm clothing, bedding and service provision to displaced people who live in difficult and dangerous conditions.

Across the UK we collect and distribute clothes, shoes, mobile phones and other essential items, as well as providing psycho social support and interaction, including language lessons, sport and music workshops. We also help with vital access to medical and educational services.

Our Legal Access Department is an access to justice project that exists to support people seeking asylum in the UK by facilitating access to legal representation and offering holistic support to people throughout the asylum process. The department, made up mostly of specially trained volunteers, works tirelessly to ensure that people feel informed, empowered, and far less isolated and alone. We conduct one-to-one, complex casework for people seeking asylum for a variety of matters, over the years we have supported thousands of people to secure legal representation. Our current casework channels include securing legal representation and support for people’s asylum claims, challenges to unsuitable accommodation and potential removal from the UK (for example under the current UK-France ‘One in One out’ deal), and support for young people in their age dispute matters. Our teams work remotely across the UK. The Department seeks to adapt and amend our services based on the needs of the communities that we work with.

About the role

The aim of the role is to support and inspire volunteer teams to undertake the individual one-to-one casework and support that lies at the heart of what the Legal Access Department does, furthering access to justice for people seeking asylum and refugees. The Casework Manager will be responsible for the casework conducted by our Asylum Team, which focuses on securing legal representation for our client's asylum claims and offering holistic support through the difficulties of the asylum process. Casework managers will use their experience and understanding of the UK asylum system and conducting complex casework to guide their teams, working collaboratively with each other and the Head of Department to respond with agility to a fast-moving policy environment.

Responsibilities

Volunteer Management

• Lead existing team(s) of volunteers to undertake their specified roles as agreed with the Head of Department
• Conduct quarterly 1:1s with volunteers to give and receive feedback, reaffirm commitments, review caseloads, support with more complex cases, and ensure volunteer wellbeing. Escalate any issues and/or concerns to the Head of Department where necessary.
• Motivate and engage volunteers, taking into account the remote nature of the roles, collaborating with other Casework Managers.
• Facilitate regular team meetings and/or virtual drop ins for volunteers to ensure continued engagement and space to raise issues or concerns.
• Support volunteer caseworkers undertaking their roles, providing advice on casework and stepping in to support clients where required. Provide casework cover when volunteer caseworkers are otherwise unavailable.
• Supervise the casework conducted to ensure that volunteer caseworkers adhere to casework procedures so that every client receives the same level of service. Where volunteers may struggle to adhere to procedures ensure that concerns are identified and raised in a timely manner to reach an appropriate solution.
• Support volunteers to raise safeguarding / protection concerns through the appropriate channels. Escalate concerns where necessary. Support volunteer caseworkers through debriefs.
• Recruit, train and onboard new volunteers with the support of the Head of Department as required.
• Manage own, limited, complex caseload of clients where required to support the volunteer casework team.

Casework Management

• Oversee the appropriate collection and management of confidential client information and data, ensuring that volunteers adhere to organisational policy at all times.
• Keep team procedure documentation up to date, implementing changes where required to keep pace with the ever-changing policy environment. Work with the Head of Department to proactively adapt the casework services provided to suit the needs of the communities we work with.
• Work with the Head of Department to proactively identify systemic issues seen regionally and/or nationally and influence the direction of the Department. Contribute to evidence gathering and furthering strategic litigation cases supported or undertaken by the Department.
• Report on team progress to the Head of Department via pre-arranged channels and format.
• Attend relevant external meetings representing the organisation as needed, ensuring that knowledge and learning is shared across the department.
• Build and maintain robust understanding of the policy landscape impacting people seeking asylum in the UK, identify and attend external training opportunities, ensure that any learning is passed on to other staff and volunteers across the organisation.
• Build and maintain relationships with key partners and stakeholders, including, but not limited to local authorities, legal teams, and other NGOs focused on support of people seeking asylum.
• Attend and contribute meaningfully to team meetings

Person specification

1. In-depth understanding of the UK asylum system
2. Dedication to social justice with a clear understanding of the challenges faced by vulnerable populations, or a willingness to learn about these
3. Ability to work sensitively with a diverse range of people, demonstrating cultural competence, respect and compassion
4. Able to build positive relationships with a range of stakeholders including those from displaced communities, legal teams, and other charities
5. Clear leadership ability, with the capability to act with initiative and drive
6. An understanding of the volunteer experience including potential challenges volunteers may face
7. Self-motivated and used to managing multiple priorities to meet deadlines
8. Collaborative team member with excellent verbal and written communication skills
9. Strong digital literacy, including ability to work on Google Workspace and Office 365
10. Resilience in the face of challenging and emotionally demanding situations, with a positive and solution-oriented mindset

Whilst not essential, we welcome applications from people with the following skills

     12. Proficiency in one or more of the languages spoken within asylum seeking communities, such as, but not limited to:               Arabic, Farsi, Pashto, Dari, Kurdish Sorani, Tigrinya or Amharic

     13. Experience leading and managing volunteer teams from varied backgrounds

Application process

Please apply via CharityJob and submit your CV and a letter of interest. In this, please outline your interest in the role and how you meet the criteria set out in the ‘person specification’. Please include any skills, relevant experience and examples of how you exemplify each point. We recognise that skills and experience come from more than just employment history and encourage anyone who meets most of the specification for this role to apply, even where this experience comes from outside traditional employment structures. If you are interested in applying but do not have all the experience necessary, we encourage you to contact us at admin [@] care4calais .org to set up an informal chat with our staff. We can discuss why you would like to apply for the role and what skills or experiences you have which could be relevant.

The recruitment process will include two interview stages which will both be conducted online. We will be reviewing applications as they arrive and reserve the right to close the advert before the closing date. Care4Calais receives a very high volume of applications for roles we advertise and therefore we are unfortunately unable to offer feedback to applicants who are not successful in securing an interview. We do, however, thank you for your interest and taking the time to apply for this role.

Care4Calais is dedicated to cultivating a diverse and inclusive work environment and recognises that this is invaluable to our ability to serve the communities we work with. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from diverse backgrounds including from Black, Asian and Minority-Ethnic communities, people from refugee and migrant backgrounds, and people with lived experience of the UK or EU immigration systems.

We are a proud member of the Experts by Experience Employment Network (EBE), which aims to create a charitable sector led by individuals with lived experience of the asylum system.

As part of our membership, we are dedicated to creating inclusive employment practices that recognise and accommodate the unique circumstances and strengths of people with lived experience. We actively move away from a one-size-fits-all approach, ensuring our recruitment processes are fair, supportive, and accessible.

We warmly encourage applicants with lived experience to make use of the guidance and resources available on the EBE website (ebeemployment). In addition, applicants with lived experience are welcome to connect with the EBE support team for tailored assistance with completing the application form and, where available, one-to-one interview preparation.

Importantly, we recognise the significant cultural, linguistic, and experiential insights that individuals with lived experience of the UK asylum system bring to this role. As such, all applicants from this background who meet the essential criteria will be automatically shortlisted and invited to interview. If you are a candidate with lived experience, please let us know in your application. We respect that people’s identity is not defined by their past experiences and will not expect candidates to describe their lived experience at interview unless they wish to do so.

If you have any questions about this or need additional support with the application process for any reason, please contact us at admin [@] care4calais .org